Castellan Knights and Smash-Captains Everywhere!

Summer is ending and for Warhammer 40K, the next big FAQ is approaching, most likely in September after the NOVA Open tournament in Washington DC.

The NOVA Open will probably also shine a light on an issue that hopefully will get addressed in the upcoming FAQ for Warhammer 40K. Or, perhaps in the 2018 Chapter Approved later this year, though the FAQ in April demonstrated Games Workshop’s willingness to tackle issues in 40K with these updates.

The issue I am talking about is the abundance of lists built on a) a Knight Castellan (typically House Raven), b) Blood Angels (typically Jump Pack Captains with SS/TH) and c) an Imperial Guard Brigade or Battalion for command points (or CP).

For the NOVA invitational, lists similar to this allegedly make up 50%+ of the field, and probably more if we’d simplify this list to a concept of „very good, CP-hungry units/detachments + Imperial Guard CP farm“.

To me, this appears to be the kind of issue Games Workshop’s rules team might want to tackle this fall, just as they did with Smite, the „rule-of-three“ or 1st-turn deepstriking in the past (though, clearly, I could be completely wrong here).

The Command Point Problem

Is the solution a points increase to the Knight Castellan and/or the Blood Angels Thunderhammer-Captain?

Maybe, though I think the units as such are fine. The biggest problem is the ability of these lists to (re-)generate near unlimited CPs for very good stratagems, allowing them to use expensive, „game-changing“ stratagems every turn.

A Blood Angels Captain using Wings of Fire, Descent of Angels, Red Rampage and Honour the Chapter all in one go (7 CP) would leave most „normal“ armies near-out of CPs, having spent all on a single action of one character.

No „normal“ Knight army could possibly afford to use Rotate Ion Shields, Order of Companions and Machine Spirit Resurgent on a Dominus-Class Knight turn after turn after turn.

With the Imperial Guard, providing an additional supply of CPs and, more importantly, „farming“ (e.g. regenerating) CPs from the Warlord Trait Grand Strategist and the Relic Kurov’s Aquila (plus the Blood Angels‘ Veritas Vitae), this kind of army can do all of that, simultaneously, effortlessly, through all game turns.

Should Command Points be Faction-Specific?

Here’s my idea on how Games Workshop should tackle this. But a few caveats first.

This should probably be an event/tournament-only recommendation, similar to the „rule of three“. The extra bookkeeping is probably unnecessary outside competitive events.

This should clearly be a „beta-rule“ giving people the opportunity to test things (and TOs the option to ignore it).

This is just my opinion on this. YMMD.

Anyhow.

Make Command Points and, perhaps even more importantly, Command Point regeneration faction-specific.

CPs should be tied to the faction that brings these CPs into the army, allowing these points to be spend only on Stratagems from and for this faction.

CP farming should only work on CPs/Stratagems from the faction that brings the CP regenerating rule to the army, or, if it is gaining CPs from Stratagems spend by your opponent, convert them into CPs for that particular faction in your army.

The three „free“ CPs for bringing a battleforged army are assigned the faction of the army’s (true) Warlord.

In other words, an army from three different factions (say, Catachans, Blood Angels and House Raven) would work with three separate command point pools for each of their detachments.

Example 1:

The army consists of:

A Catachan Brigade Detachment

A Blood Angels Battalion Detachment

A Super Heavy Auxiliary House Raven Castellan Knight

This army would bring 12 „Catachan CP“ (useable on generic Astra Militarum Stratagems and the Catachan-specific one), 5 „Blood Angel CP“ and 0 „House Raven CP“, +3 CPs to the faction of this army’s warlord.

Moreover, if this army featured a Grand Strategist Warlord, Kurov’s Aquila and Veritas Vitae, the Grand Strategist would only roll for „Catachan CP“ spend on Astra Militarum Stratagems, the Veritas Vitae would only roll on „Blood Angels CP“ spend on Blood Angels Stratagems and Kurov’s Aquila would turn all CPs gained as a result of the opponent playing stratagems into „Catachan CP“.

Example 2:

The army consists of:

A Black Heart Drukhari Spearhead Detachment with an Archon as Warlord with Labyrinthine Cunning (1 + 3 = a total of 4 „Black Heart CPs“, since it includes the Warlord. Labyrinthine Cunning would regenerate only opponents‘ and „Black Heart CPs“ into new „Black Heart CPs“).

The rush of 8th edition codex books has been impressive. While I patiently wait for the Space Wolves book to drop, the most recent release, Craftworld Eldar, looks so cool, I picked up at the book, dusted my Eldar off and drafted a list. Weiterlesen →

However, I must note that the new way of doing re-rolls can be decidedly weird in the new edition. It matters, because re-rolls are very common in the game. Having characters with aura-effects for re-rolls near units seems to be a major design feature of the new 40K. Weiterlesen →

I listened in on Games Workshop’s live Q&A on the new edition of Warhammer 40K. Here are my notes, in case you’re interested.

Rule Changes

Rules from the Warhammer Community Preview Article are still in.

Armour Values for Vehicles are gone. Vehicles use a stat line like other models.

Vehicles will become less effective and “lose” abilities/stats similar to how big monsters in Warhammer Age of Sigmar become less effective as they take wounds.

Each vehicle will be affected differently and in a unique manner.

Monsters will work very similar to vehicles (and vice versa).

The new Edition still uses D6.

An average game of, say, around (currently) 1500 points will last about 90 minutes on average (about half of what it takes now).

New version is designed with 3-ways-to-play in mind with strong support for narrative play planned.

There will be two sets of point values for units/models.

One called „power level“ for narrative play. Very „rough“, not taking into account individual equipment, etc.., but allowing „rough“ balance.

For „Matched Play“, point values go into all the granular details of individual weapons, etc.

Key words are used to define abilities (i.e. a Space Marine Captain may buff units with the „Adeptus Astartes“ keyword, but not, say, Imperial Guard).

Command Points & Army Organisation

Command Points are a new mechanism to make the game more tactical and better reflect army selection (narrative & matched play).

Narrative and matched play requires armies to be “battleforged” (organised long detachment rules).

Compliance with detachment rules will give an army command points.

Lots of detachments/force organisations will be available.

One command point per phase.

Command points can be used, for example, to re-roll dice, interrupt actions of an opponent during an opponent’s turn, etc.

“Generic” Command points will be in the general rules and army specific command points will be featured in future Codexes to reflect the flavor of different armies Codexes as a product will still exist (including command point rules).

Rules & Codexes

On launch there will be 5 books: Space Marines, Forces of the Imperium, Xenos, ??, ?? to cover all armies at launch (cheaper than Codexes). These include points.

Expansions such as Planetstrike and Cities of Death will reappear eventually (as well as new narrative supplements).

free core rules will be available digitally. GW stores and stockists will have a limited supply of printed free rules.

A Warhammer 40K app with army builder is being worked on, but will not be available on launch.

No currently existing factions and models will disappear (no „Bretonnians“).

Matched Play and Tournaments

Matched Play section will be updated annually (along the lines of Age of Sigmar General’s Handbook), including adjustment of point values.

New Edition was playtested by external playtesters (e.g. Frontline Gaming, etc..) as well as internal playtesters.

There are no specific tournament rules over and beyond „Matched Play Rules“ (but guidelines/recommendations to help tournament/event organisers).

Story & Other Things

New faction(s) coming, including at least one at launch.

A design goal to position Chaos more fully as the main antagonist.

White Scars still exist (despite being absent from the new map).

Codex Refund

If you bought a Warhammer 40K Codex or rulebook within 8 weeks of last Saturday’s announcement of the new edition, you can contact Games Workshop customer service for a voucher.